Mobile phone theft has become a major challenge for law enforcement agencies (LEAs), particularly due to national security implications attached to it. Now, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has moved a proposal asking the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to look into the possibility of getting FIRs registered for each stolen mobile handset and immediately blocking it to prevent its misuse by anti-social elements.
In an internal note, the DoT has asked the MHA to even consider framing a law to make it mandatory for all phone users to report loss or theft of handsets. The DoT also believes that this would reduce mobile phone thefts. As of now, it is not compulsory for a person to lodge an FIR for the stolen handset.
Describing how the system works today, the DoT note accessed by The Hindu says that when a handset is lost or stolen, the affected customer asks his mobile operator to block the existing SIM card, obtains a new one and starts using a new handset, while some go to the police and lodge an FIR.
“When a customer lodges the FIR for the lost/stolen handset, telecom service providers [TSPs] can make IMEI-based search ... For making IMEI-based search, the LEA/police authority has to request all TSPs across all licence service areas [States] because lost or stolen handset could be working in any TSP’s network. It may require augmentation of network resources. After committing these resources, it may not be feasible to trace all stolen/lost handsets as the person in possession of the stolen or lost handset may not activate the handset for a long time,” the note says.
“A better alternative could be to block all the reported lost or stolen mobile phones/devices. This can be done either based on a report received from the police authorities or on the request made by the customer directly to the TSP by putting the IMEI under the blacklist,” it adds.
The DoT says that once these stolen/lost handsets are put under blacklist, it would not be possible for the person in possession of these handsets to use them. “This will help in reduction in cases of theft of mobile devices.”
Moreover, to deal with the issue of mobile theft more comprehensively as envisaged in the National Telecom Policy-2012, the DoT is examining the possibility of setting up a device registry to deal with the issue of duplicate IMEI and non-genuine IMEI and blacklisting stolen handsets.
